A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
NEW NEIGHBORS
From Portland
to Prairie City
Contributed photo
Columnist Rod Carpenter poses with a turkey.
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
Ten-year tom
S
ince I moved home to John
Day 10 years ago, I have
been chasing turkeys off
and on pretty hard without suc-
cess. With all the turkeys around,
that is kind of embarrassing to
say, but I freely admit that I’m not
a very good bird hunter. I don’t
know what I am saying when I am
scratching on my call, but it must
not be good.
With the help of friends, we
managed to get my boy a nice tom
opening day of the youth hunt.
My buddy called him right in to
his decoys. I was amazed that it
actually worked!
I went out the first couple of
days of my hunt and couldn’t even
get a response to my calls. That
was a little disheartening. Usually
I can at least get a gobble or two.
Luckily, I got permission to hunt
some private land where I knew
they roosted. The problem was
that it was at the far end of a wide
open field.
The plan was to get up way
before daylight and be in posi-
tion as the sun came up. Well, you
know what they say about the best
laid plans. We got up pretty early,
but it seems like some gear had
pulled a runner in the night, and we
had to spend some time finding it.
By the time we parked, it was just
starting to get light in the east.
As we made our way across
the field, we could hear the tur-
keys gobbling up in the trees. But
after we set up our decoy and got
into position, they stopped call-
ing. I was sure they had seen us
crossing the field and equally sure
that we were wasting our time. I
decided that since we were there,
we might as well give it a go.
Every couple of minutes I
would do some hen clucks, alter-
nating between my reed and
box calls, hoping to sound like a
whole flock of anxious hens look-
ing for a man. I kept at it for about
45 minutes without even getting a
response.
Discouraged, Tuck and I were
standing in the brush trying to
decide what to do next. I glanced
off to the east just in time to see a
bunch of turkeys come around the
corner of the field about 200 yards
away. We quickly dropped back
into place and set up.
There were two toms and four
hens. Those toms homed in on my
decoy and came running in. It was
pretty darn cool to watch them
strut for my decoy.
When they got to 15 yards I
raised my Remington 870 and col-
lected my first tom in 10 years.
The other tom was so focused on
our decoy that he was still strut-
ting around trying to get a date
after the shot. Tuck was sad he
hadn’t picked up a second tag.
After seeing it all come
together, I guess I will have to
have another go at it next year.
Hopefully I won’t have to wait 10
years for the next one.
Tell us your hunting stories at
shootingthebreezebme@gmail.
com.
Rod Carpenter is a husband,
father and hunting fool.
Dunn embraces nature and
a warm community
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
From the city lights and fast-paced
life to natural heights in the country
life, Kati Dunn is enjoying the change
of scenery in Grant County.
Dunn moved to Prairie City in
November 2019 after 20 years in
Portland and works as an attorney for
Strawberry Mountain Law, PC.
“I’m originally from the Midwest,
and I moved to Oregon because I got
a taste for the outdoors when I waited
tables one summer at Yellowstone
Park (as an undergraduate student),
and that was the first time in my life
I have seen snow-capped mountains,
rushing rivers and deep forests,”
Dunn said. “I had never seen the
majestic nature out here in the West.”
Dunn was enthralled with the life-
style, which was not available in her
home state of Illinois.
When Dunn was in law school
at the University of Illinois, her hunt
for a place to settle and begin her
career as a lawyer focused on a loca-
tion that would give her chances to
hike and enjoy outdoor opportunities.
She looked at Wyoming, Montana and
Washington, but Oregon provided the
great combination of outdoor opportu-
nities and a welcoming legal system.
Dunn decided to make Oregon
her home. She studied for the Ore-
gon State Bar exam and started her
first job as an attorney in Newport on
the coast. She then pursued a public
defender position in Coos County for
about two years.
Desiring the excitement of the
city, she then accepted a position
with Metropolitan Public Defender in
Portland. She said it was a great city,
but she began looking for a different
opportunity.
“Towards my last three or four
years at MPD, I spent more time
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Kati Dunn is enjoying the change in scenery, having moved from Portland to
Prairie City.
backpacking and out in the woods and
came to understand that that’s when
I feel the happiest and most alive
and most connected — when I am
in nature and can witness the beauty
it has,” Dunn said. “I started to real-
ize that doesn’t need to be limited
to vacations and weekends because
there are people who live in beautiful
settings all the time, like here.”
Since making the move to Prai-
rie City, she has enjoyed the breath-
taking view of the Strawberry Moun-
tains as she commutes to Canyon City
and feels lucky to live a life she only
experienced during vacations.
Along with the natural beauty,
Dunn has been impressed by the
community in Grant County.
“I feel like in a bigger city some-
times you feel like you’re in some-
one’s way when you’re at the store
and blocking their path to what they
want from the freezer,” Dunn said.
“When here, at Chester’s (Thrift-
way) you see someone you recog-
nize, and you visit and it’s nice. I’ve
found the Grant County folks to be
very welcoming.”
Still, she said, she can’t wait for
spring so she can explore the Straw-
berry Mountain Wilderness and hike
through miles and miles of solitude
among nature.
[ RESPOND RECOVER REBUILD ]
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